O-lan Jones

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Edward Scissorhands is no ordinary boy, as his name may tell. Created by a genius inventor who passed away before his subject was completed, he seems doomed to a life of solitude in a dilapidated castle. That is until the local Avon lady named Peg Boggs calls round and willingly takes the poor boy under her wing. Integrating him into civilised society isn't easy, however. While many neighbours are deeply accepting and impressed by his ability to cut hair and trim hedges, others see him as a danger with his bladed fingers that could easily cause some damage. Peg's daughter Kim is a little uneasy, despite how immediately taken Edward is of her, and her friends recognise this weakness and aim to exploit it to their advantage. Predictably, Edward's mistakes get him into a lot of trouble and he soon finds that the novelty of his presence is wearing thin.

Violence got the star treatment in the early '90s. With much of America feeling powerless to stem the crime and gang culture that seemed to be on the rise, we began to react to the ocean of carnage that dominated popular culture. Congress held hearings about violence on television, the finishing moves in Mortal Kombat, and Body Count's otherwise obscure gangsta-metal single "Cop Killer." For a while, blaming the pervasiveness of fake violence for real-world murder and assaults came to be as fashionable as flannel shirts and ripped jeans.

And yet, America kept consuming it. Snoop Dogg sold millions of CDs, video games amped up the gore, and children could quote the grisly details of the O.J. Simpson murder trial as if it were written by Dr. Seuss.